OH MY GOD IT'S COLD

I haven't updated for a while, but generally that's because life has been pretty quiet. There's just not as much to do when it's -17 degrees outside. Mostly I just go to work (which I fortunately enjoy), watch videos with Megan, and go drinking with the gang. A couple of weeks ago Rob had a poker night at his house, and despite my misgivings about gambling (does not go well with compulsive nature) I went, because it turns out you had best take every social opportunity you have when living overseas. Anyway I was the first one out. I simply played badly. I bought back in however, and came out 25 crowns ahead for the night. So if anyone needs a donation to the "visit Mark in Prague fund" , I am willing to donate my total winnings. That's approximately $1. I decided at the last minute to have an actual birthday celebration, so perhaps after the weekend I will have some new stories or at least a few photos.

Good Deeds

My friend Joan in New York along with my other good friend Andrea created a blog about people doing good deeds for one another. One of the best things about this blog is that it is mostly about New Yorkers doing for each other, which is a story not told enough. I've been keeping an eye on the site and am pretty happy to post a referral. Well done guys, love the site, and its always good to hear that people are still paying attention to the good news. I have added a link to the site on my links list to the left.

Texan dies in bizarre bus accident

I realized I had not told the story about the bus that attacked me. A few weeks back while trying to take Megan out to dinner, we were traveling from one restaurant that was full to another. When we came to the bus stop there was already a bus waiting. A little old woman was standing in the door waiting for her friend to arrive so they could get on. I hesitated for a moment because I didn't want to step in front of her. I realized she wasn't getting on, so I stepped into the doorway. Just as I was taking that step I heard the buzzer that supposed to warn people that the door will be shutting soon. I was already in midstride, so I kept moving. Just as my foot landed on the first step, the door closed. The buses have scissored double doors, so the effect was to catch me right down the middle. Unfortunately the doors are not set to open if they encounter resistance. So I just was trapped there until the bus driver decided to open the door again. He finally did, but only left it open long enough to get al of me, but my other foot through the door, closing it again on my left ankle. I suddenly had visions of myself traveling sown the road with my foot hanging out, but fortunately the driver must have realized that he couldn't do that to someone, and opened the door. This time he left it open long enough for me to get all the way in the bus, and for Megan and the old lady to follow. However he shut the door in the face of the old lady's friend. Somehow it seems I got the blame for this. I could tell by the glare from the little old lady.

New Year's

So the plan for New Year's came together at the last minute as you might expect. Curtis invited me to a friends to have dinner and then head out onot the town form there. I bought a couple of bottles of wine and hit the public transport into town. Dinner was delicious (eggplant Parmesan) and the company was friendly as always. Curtis has a friend in visiting form New York, and he was an interesting new addition to the group. After dinner and drinking we headed off to see some fireworks. I forget what the original plan was. Somehow I got elected navigator, which was just silly, but we lost some of our party on a tram. Basically they are visiting, and we hopped a tram, but they missed it. The tram didn't go far, but I think they were a little lost, and decided not to follow. Anyway we waited for them for a few minutes, and then realized we were going to miss the countdown if we didn't hurry. As we were passing through Namesti Miru, I stopped the party, and talked them into staying put. Namesti Miru is overshadowed by a giant beautiful cathedral, has a large digital clock on one of the buildings, and had just enough people there to create a party atmosphere. I thought it better to stay there than end up missing the countdown on route to a place I wasn't sure how to get to. Anyway we stayed, and the fireworks from here were brilliant. We drank Champaign and I kissed everyone. Later we had a snowball fight.
We decided to have a conference about what to do next. The group was sort of divided. Curtis, Mickey (New York friend), and I wanted to go to this gay bar nearby and do some dancing, but the girls wanted to go elsewhere, I forget where exactly. While we were having this conference some Czechs tossed a firecracker at the group. Everyone scattered except me. I waited for it to go off, and kinda just looked at the group that had thrown it and yelled Happy New Year. I guess they were impressed because one of the guys walked over and handed me a handful of firecrackers. So I had fun throwing those at people. Anyway, we headed off finally, but got distracted on the way by a noisy little sidestreet bar that didn't have a cover, so we went in there for a while. Finally, the boys and I headed out, because we really wanted to dance. I got an opportunity to do some sidewalk ice skating, but apparently neither my shoes nor my stride are properly adjusted to the ice, because I kept busting my ass ALL NIGHT. I fell down 5 times.
We finally managed to get to the club, and did in fact get to do some dancing. Eventually we headed out and went to get a late night snack at this all night fast food Mexican joint I know. But eventually I had to hop the bus and head home. Unfortunately the next morning I felt like some one had beaten me with a rubber hose, and some of the bruises are still there, but it was worth it.

P.S. I gave the address to this blog to some of my new Czech friends (Hello Kate, Jiri, Blanka, and Gabby), so if you see strange new comments in Czech I will do my best to translate those.